


In Living Memory

by traptrixnepenthes



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: M/M, this is what the kids call minimalism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 10:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25968163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traptrixnepenthes/pseuds/traptrixnepenthes
Summary: genis has a one-sided conversation with mithos, set shortly after yggdrasill's first fall.even if someone you love isn't quite there anymore that doesn't have to mean that they're gone forever, you know?
Relationships: Genis Sage/Mithos Yggdrasill
Comments: 7
Kudos: 13





	In Living Memory

Heimdall was a pretty place, Genis supposed. Iselia was wrapped up in its own natural beauty too, but it didn’t have a forest growing around it or a stream that wound its way through the town, having to be built around instead of just built upon. The air was alive with the sound of unfamiliar birdsong, leaves in the wind, water over the stones in the riverbank… It was a pretty place, definitely. Too bad it was spoiled by every other aspect about it.

He was sitting on the edge of the river, just kind of staring into it. There were some small fish swimming around in it, but he wasn’t really watching them or anything, not intentionally. They darted around in little flashes of silver, catching his eyes, but the only reason he was sitting here at all was because he and his sister had been banned from going into any of the buildings here by the elves who could apparently tolerate a half-elf existing near them, but not touching any of their things. It was hard to even just walk around when it seemed like he could feel the entire town’s population staring at him, something from outside that didn't belong here even though he was originally _from_ here. He didn’t know if they actually were or not, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to look behind him to check.

Instead, he fished out the rock that was in his pocket, carefully cradling it in his hands. Genis didn’t actually know if Cruxis Crystals counted as rocks or not, geologically speaking, but the one he held looked so much like a brilliantly-cut green gem; he knew that they were mined for, but they acted more like biological parasites than anything and if used for long enough, with the right level of refinement, they could even hold someone’s memories and consciousness after their death. He’d watched Presea and Regal talk to the fallen Alicia via her Exsphere, and somewhere in the green facets of the one in his hand was...Mithos.

He was the one who had killed Mithos. Others had taken part in the battle against him, but it was his casting of Gravity Well that had slammed him to the ground, and then he’d stopped moving. His wings, those polygons of purple light that were more just the idea of wings than actual ones, had fallen limply at his sides, and that was it. Everything had ended so suddenly. There was nothing glorious, nothing heroic about any of it. Maybe Mithos had lied to him and betrayed him, but hadn’t Genis betrayed him too, in the end?

“Mithos…” Genis’s voice was soft, but he still glanced around a bit to see if anyone was going to suddenly come up and kick him out of the village. Lloyd had already mentioned the first time they’d come here that all talk of Mithos the Hero was forbidden, but he _wasn’t_ talking about the legendary hero. He was talking about...his friend. “I heard you were born here. It turns out I was, too… But we both still got chased out of here, and it wasn’t even our fault.” There was no response from the gem, even though Genis knew full well there could’ve been, if Mithos had wanted to respond. He’d heard Alicia’s voice, and she’d had her crystal for way less than Mithos had. “I’m sorry...for bringing you back here. But I’m glad I don’t have to be here alone.”

Still nothing, but that was fine. Genis could just close his eyes and imagine what Mithos would’ve said to him in response, probably something about as long as the two of them were together, that was what really mattered. He didn’t know if that was how Mithos would really have responded, now that he knew more about what kind of person he really was, but it was still nice to think about.

Genis had picked up Mithos’s crystal mostly on a whim. He’d seen it laying on the ground after he died, and he’d snatched it up before anyone could notice it was there to vanish. No one had noticed, or at least no one had asked him about it, and that was good enough. He wasn’t exactly proud of it, but all he’d been able to think about when he saw it laying there was that he didn’t want to have to be alone and that he wanted to show Mithos the regenerated world, and now…

Well, at least he was somewhere he had no intention of ever returning to again. If the elves here thought he was a freak for talking to a rock, it wouldn’t matter. Genis hadn’t gotten any time to himself since he’d picked up the crystal, and there was still so much he wanted to say to Mithos that he hadn’t been able to. Even if his friend didn’t respond, he still at least wanted him to know.

“You know,” he started, and then hesitated, not quite sure how to phrase what he wanted to say. “You’re...the second friend I’ve killed. I don’t think I ever told you about her, since I didn’t want you to think less of me for having done that… Her name was Marble, and she was a human trapped at one of _your_ ranches. She was human, but she didn’t treat me any less even though she knew I wasn’t one, and in the end she got turned into a monster by Desians and I killed her. I didn’t know it was her, but I still…”

Genis trailed off, the scene of Mithos’s death replaying itself in his mind. The way the spell had slammed him to the ground, the way his wings had fallen, the way he just hadn’t moved again. Genis had waited, moment after long moment, for Mithos to get up again and come after them with all the rage and sorrow he’d been carrying for four thousand years, and he just...hadn’t. There were no excuses, not like he could pretend there were for Marble; he’d known from the beginning that everyone else had gone to the Tower of Salvation so that they could kill Mithos, and that he was the only one who had wanted otherwise. He hadn’t said anything, hadn’t done anything to try and stop them, telling himself that the conflict was going to happen no matter what so there was no point in sitting it out… But now, here he was, feeling guilty as sin for it. Maybe he could have prevented everything and fixed everything so everyone could've been happy if he'd just tried a little harder, or said something or...

“Did it…” His voice was so quiet, he could barely hear himself. “Did it hurt, to die like that?” No response. “...I never wanted to hurt you. I’m so sorry.”

It was too little, too late, and he knew it. Mithos was dead--even if his consciousness was still in the stone, he didn’t have an intact body to go back to anymore. Alicia couldn’t be brought back to life and the kindest thing that could be done for her was at least breaking her stone so that she could finally rest in peace, and maybe that would be the best thing to do with Mithos, too. It would be easy enough to do, another Gravity Well spell focused on a single point would be enough, but…

“...I don’t want to hurt you again,” he said to the cold, silent crystal. “I know it’s selfish, but I really meant it when I said I wanted to stay with you forever. I still...to me, you’re still…”

Genis trailed off, not sure exactly what he wanted to say. If Mithos was listening, he hoped he still understood anyways.

“We’re going to finish regenerating the world. It’s going to be hard work, but we’re going to finish what you and your sister started and make a world that can accept humans, elves...and those of us caught in between. I promise.”

Maybe it was just a trick of the light, but Genis thought he saw something flickering inside the crystal. He hoped he wasn’t imagining things, and he hoped Mithos was listening, even if he wasn’t responding. He took a deep breath and pressed the gem to his chest, the closest he could get to hugging his friend at this point, and whispered to it, “I already miss you so much.”

As a crystal, and even before as an angel, Mithos couldn’t feel anything. The times when they’d held hands or hugged hadn’t felt like anything to him, and even now the warmth of Genis’s hands couldn’t warm up the crystal, and this hug was just for his own sake, not Mithos’s. But despite that, Mithos had still gently squeezed his hand and wrapped his arms around Genis in return, and he hoped that if Mithos had been here now, he would’ve still done the same all over again.

**Author's Note:**

> almost named this "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" and aren't we all so glad i didn't


End file.
